Carr feels no pressure to return quickly due to CB depth

Pictures of the Ravens game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 17.

Edward Lee

Regardless of rookie cornerback Jimmy Smith’s status for Sunday’s contest at the Tennessee Titans, cornerback Chris Carr said he will treat and rehabilitate his injured left hamstring accordingly and without pressure to return quickly.

“It doesn’t put any extra pressure on me,” he said after the Ravens’ 35-7 thrashing of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. “Like I said, we’ve got three or four or five guys that can go in there and start. The pressure’s coming from myself. I want to go in there and contribute and play hard. Some games might be different. We might not be up by a lot of points, and it puts more pressure on the defense. But I just really want to get back out there for my teammates and help this team win.”

Carr re-aggravated his injury in the second quarter and wore street clothes in the second half.

The uncertainty around Carr is heightened by Smith’s sprained left ankle. Smith, who injured the ankle while covering a kickoff in the first quarter, wore a protective brace around the foot and ankle and used crutches to leave the locker room.

X-rays on Smith’s ankle did not reveal a fracture, according to a team official. But another team official mentioned the possibility that Smith may have suffered a high ankle sprain, which could keep him out of the lineup for a few weeks.

“We have depth on this team,” he said. “If anybody goes down, we’re going to be fine. If I go down, we’re going to be fine. Fox, Jimmy, Webb, Cary, if anyone goes down, we’re going to be fine because to me, we have five legit starting corners in this league. And whenever you have five legit starting corners in this league, you’re going to be fine. That’s always great. … If we get up, it’s going to be hard for a team to come back on us, especially if they have to drive the length of the field. So there was no nervousness when Jimmy went down and when I went down. Everybody knew that we were going to get the job done. We had that confidence.”